John Philoponus

c. 490 CE–c. 570 CE · Alexandria

John Philoponus ('the lover of work'), also called John the Grammarian (c. 490-c. 570 CE), was a Greek philosopher and Christian theologian of Alexandria. A pupil of the Neoplatonist Ammonius, he wrote extensive commentaries on Aristotle but broke with received doctrine on important points, notably arguing against the eternity of the world and developing an early critique of Aristotle's physics that anticipated later theories of motion. His ideas influenced later medieval and Islamic thought.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria (al-Iskandariyya) is the great Mediterranean port-city of northern Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE and a leading centre of learning in antiquity. After the Muslim conquest of Egypt (642) it remained a major commercial and scholarly hub; the Shadhili Sufi Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 1309) took his nisba from the city, and the modernist reformer Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) was active in Egypt's intellectual life there and in Cairo.

In Alexandria at the same time

Ammonius, Eutocius, David the Invincible, Olympiodorus, Elias Neoplatonicus

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

Theodosius of AlexandriaChristian

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with John Philoponus’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

Theodosius of Alexandria· Alexandria

In the same tradition

Ammonius, Eutocius, David the Invincible, Olympiodorus, Elias Neoplatonicus

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with John Philoponus’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.